By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business

Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

An environmental activist yesterday warned that the parties responsible for last year’s Exuma oil spill must not be allowed to escape by paying a minimal fine.

Joe Darville, of Save the Bays and Waterkeepers Bahamas, told Tribune Business that the minimum $25,000 fine permitted under the Department of Environmental Planning and Protection (DEPP) Act is not sufficient as either compensation or to deter potential future pollution incidents.

The Act states in Section 56 that those found guilty of an offense of “intentionally or recklessly” causing pollution shall pay a fine of no less than $25,000 but not exceeding $30m. And, in the case of a conviction, the fine should be “three times the assessed value of the damage caused”.

Mr Darville said: “For the amount of damage that was done to the environment, the inconvenience, and actually for that area to be used, and all the work that they had to do to actually scrape the oil from the sand and from the bottom of the bay, that’s going to be more like $100,000 to compensate.”

The 30,000 gallon Exuma oil spill was caused by “a ruptured hose” that was transferring diesel fuel from a vessel, the MT Arabian, to Bahamas Power & Light’s (BPL) storage facility on the island. Sun Oil, a subsidiary of BISX-listed FOCOL Holdings, had contracted with Gladstone Road-headquartered D&T Shipping, the MT Arabian’s owner, to supply the fuel to BPL.

The Government has yet to confirm which of the parties involved - FOCOL Holdings, D&T Shipping, even BPL or all three - will be subject to the fines. The latter may be levied in addition to those parties financing the clean-up costs. “This may be a separate fee altogether, and it’s probably going to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for that area,” Mr Darville added.

“That’s a prime area where the water comes in. The beach was rendered useless because they had to scrape all the sand out of that area in order to remove the oil. I would think that $25,000 would be just the penalty for the accident, and not to pay for the clean-up itself. This is really insignificant.”

Ryan Pinder KC, the attorney general, told the Office of the Prime Minister’s weekly press briefing that the fine has been agreed with those responsible, but did not provide a figure or specify who would pay and how much.

He said: “We’ve agreed to a fine in that with the other side. I think that will be the first fine collected by the Government of The Bahamas on an environmental matter since the passage of the legislation. So the fine has been agreed with the parties in Exuma.

“We are looking to put in fines on the delay of the removal of the wreck in Abaco. How our legislation is drafted…. is our legislation restricts our ability to have to issue what’s called spot fines, fines on the spot. They require us to go to court get a judgment and issue the fine. We are now redrafting some regulations under the DEPP Act to allow DEPP to issue spot fines in instances of continued non-compliance.”